Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to temperature monitoring and, in particular, to a system, method, and apparatus for monitoring and visualizing temperatures in food products.
Description of Related Art
Typically, the temperature of food products, such as the pulp-temperature of fresh produce or food stored for retail sales, is measured with a temperature sensor that is manually inserted into a food product when pallets are in pre-cooling or cold storage warehouses, during transport or retail store shelves. Such methods require labor to regularly check the temperatures to determine when a food product must be cooled or heated to bring temperatures to an acceptable level or moved to a location having a different temperature. When fresh produce is harvested, it should be quickly cooled to a low temperature (e.g., 32° F. for certain fruits and vegetables) in order to enhance quality and extend shelf life and freshness. Manual temperature probing under these circumstances are especially inefficient and problematic when manual temperature probing techniques are used. A manual approach results in decreased throughput of food products and increased costs and potentially lower quality and depleted shelf life and freshness. Likewise, humidity of the environment of the enclosure where the food resides has certain effects on food products.